Senate Approves DATA Act

Published April 10, 2014

Accounting Todayreported on U.S. Senate passage of an amended version of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 994) on April 10. The legislation, known as the DATA Act, would mandate the publication of all federal spending disclosures as standardized open data. “The Senate cast a vote in favor of in favor of enhanced government data transparency” in passing the legislation, AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon said in a statement. The measure calls for the use of a nonproprietary, platform-independent data standard such as Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, and has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency of the federal government’s reporting of financial information. “Passage of S. 994 is a critical step in the effort to be responsive to calls for government transparency, by making consistent, reliable and searchable spending data available to taxpayers and policymakers alike,” Melancon was quoted as saying.